Those Korean little dried fish (Bokkeum myeolchi)

[Mooshmouse]

This has been driving me nuts for a while now. I can't, for the life of me, remember the name of the Korean side dish consisting of tiny dried anchovies in a sweet, almost sticky sauce.

I'd love to be able to ask for this dish by name in a restaurant but can never think of what it's called. And whenever I do manage to describe this dish adequately enough to order it, the waitstaff usually look somewhat puzzled and rather astonished that someone non-Korean actually enjoys eating it.

Does anyone know what this dish is called? Thanks in advance!

[melonpan]

does this link help? <a href="http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=28041&view=findpost&p=746149">http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=28041&view=findpost&p=746149</a>

[Mooshmouse]

Bokkeum myeolchi... thank you melonpan!

The way I've had it served to me in Korean restaurants here is more plain than the recipe you noted: usually prepared with the tiniest fish and no chilis or jalepenos. But your version looks delicious; I'll have to try making it at home.

Filipinos usually eat these pan or oven toasted to get them extra crispy, dipped in cane vinegar with crushed garlic and chilis. My 3 1/2-year-old son loves them and snacks on them, sans vinegar, like potato chips. He's forever trying to get my husband to try them -- "Come on Daddy, you have to taste everything on the table at least once! -- but no go as of yet!

[Marco_Polo]

Hi Mooshmouse

Halmoni called this deep-fried dried anchovy drinking snack marun myolchi. It's the sort of sweet and salty anju that keeps you coming back for more maekchu or tong dong chu. It's incredibly simple to make at home. Though the amount of sugar here may seem excessive, when combined with the salt of the fish and the fire of the kochujang it's just about right, for my taste anyway.

As an aside, I think the Korean penchant for drinking and snacking is very similar to the Spanish/Andulusian penchant for drinking fino and nibbling on tapas. Koreans rarely drink without food, and the array of drinking snacks is deliciously varied, a remarkable range of savoury, pungent or strongly-flavoured foods that help promote a healthy thirst and provide a comfortable bed for copious quantities of alcohol. My sort of food!

Marun myolchi

1 packet of dried anchovies (about 4 oz)

2 tablespoons kochujang

1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped

4 tablespoons sugar

Oil for deep frying

Heat a large heavy pot with sufficient oil for deep frying. When hot, add the packet of dried anchovies and fry for about 20-30 seconds only, until crisp but not burnt. Drain with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper.

Mix together the kochujang, garlic and sugar. Return the fried anchovies to a clean pot, add this sauce mixture, and stir well, taking care not to break up the fish but to ensure that they are evenly coate4d. Cook over a medium flame for a couple of minutes. Spoon into a bowl and serve hot or cold as a nibbling snack with drinks.

[Mooshmouse]

Halmoni called this deep-fried dried anchovy drinking snack marun myolchi. It's the sort of sweet and salty anju that keeps you coming back for more maekchu or tong dong chu. It's incredibly simple to make at home. Though the amount of sugar here may seem excessive, when combined with the salt of the fish and the fire of the kochujang it's just about right, for my taste anyway.

As an aside, I think the Korean penchant for drinking and snacking is very similar to the Spanish/Andulusian penchant for drinking fino and nibbling on tapas. Koreans rarely drink without food, and the array of drinking snacks is deliciously varied, a remarkable range of savoury, pungent or strongly-flavoured foods that help promote a healthy thirst and provide a comfortable bed for copious quantities of alcohol. My sort of food!

←

That's it! Exactly what I was looking for... thank you so much!

Of course, you realize that the wildlife in our neighbourhood will suffer immensely as a result of my having this recipe. I'm absolutely forbidden to fry or oven toast dried anchovies in the house as my husband has a marked abhorrence for the smell. So I cook them outdoors on the gas burner of our barbecue. Though you'd think this solves the odour problem, my husband claims that all birds and small animals within a 1 mile radius of our house drop dead in their tracks or midflight as soon as I start cooking.

Filipinos, too, love drinking and snacking. Or just plain snacking really. Pulutan is the Tagalog term for drinking snacks, and our taste preference for a broad spectrum of flavours from sour to sweet to pungent and savoury runs parallel with the Koreans.

Thanks again for your input!

[touaregsand]

I prefer the super tiny ones. I like a crisp/crunchy finish as well. But rather than deep fry, I saute them in 1/2" of oil, towards the end of cooking I add soy sauce and sugar, maybe a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.

My 6 year old loves them. She even takes them to school, not "embarassed" at all while chowing down in front of her classmates at the French-American school. She even tells them, "See the little heads and eyes? There so tiny you can't even feel them in your mouth." How the world has changed, most of us probably remember not wanting to be too ethnic with food at school for fear of negative of feedback.

[His Nibs]

The malays also have something similar to go with their Nasi Lemak. They call them ikan bilis (the dried anchovies not the dish). That with peanuts, salt and sugar, coconut milk rice and good sambal.... excellent breakfast!

[Suburbanpeasant]

Yes...Lightly fried in oil and sugar, and served with finely sliced fresh red chillies and onions and a generous squeeze of (asian) lime. Yummm

The malays also have something similar to go with their Nasi Lemak. They call them ikan bilis (the dried anchovies not the dish). That with peanuts, salt and sugar, coconut milk rice and good sambal.... excellent breakfast!

←

[touaregsand]

The malays also have something similar to go with their Nasi Lemak. They call them ikan bilis (the dried anchovies not the dish). That with peanuts, salt and sugar, coconut milk rice and good sambal.... excellent breakfast!

←

I have to try this one!

[touaregsand]

Yes...Lightly fried in oil and sugar, and served with finely sliced fresh red chillies and onions and a generous squeeze of (asian) lime. Yummm

The malays also have something similar to go with their Nasi Lemak. They call them ikan bilis (the dried anchovies not the dish). That with peanuts, salt and sugar, coconut milk rice and good sambal.... excellent breakfast!

←

←

The Koreans do a spicy version as well with red pepper flakes or fresh chilis. We can eat just this with rice of course.

Peanuts and coconut milk? Recipe please?

[Suburbanpeasant]

The ikan bilis fried with sugar, sliced chillies and onions with a dash of fresh lime is basic pub snack in Singapore and possibly Malaysia.

The sambal ikan bilis is the dish that has a light coat of sambal. It's a side dish to rice serving that includes fried egg, fish, convulous, etc. This rice serving is called Nasi Lemak because it is rice cooked with coconut milk.

To make the sambal for the ikan bilis, you'd want to pound a handful of fresh red chillies (seeds off or on, it's up to you) or presoaked and squeez dried chillies. Pound these with a couple of small onions (shallots). In a separate maneouver, dissolve a teaspoon of tamarind paste in half a rice bowl of water (this is only an estimate). Strain to get pure tamarind juice.

To combine this, simply fry the ikan bilis (make sure they are very dry, if not, heat them under low oven heat) in a bit of oil. Once they turn crispy and the room begins to smell, remove. Throw in the pounded chilli and onion. Resist coughing. Quick stirring is the key word. Sprinkle the tamarind juice, lower the heat until the mixture is kinda moist. Sprinkle more tamarind juice if you like it more moist. Return the pre-fried ikan bilis into this sambal. Sprinkle liberally with sugar, the coarser the better. The trick is to get the sugar to caramelise just enough to give the dish the crisp. At this point, you can add in roasted peanuts. Stir a couple of more seconds and remove.

There are 10,000 variations to this sambal ikan bilis. This is one that I kinda remember.

Yes...Lightly fried in oil and sugar, and served with finely sliced fresh red chillies and onions and a generous squeeze of (asian) lime. Yummm

The malays also have something similar to go with their Nasi Lemak. They call them ikan bilis (the dried anchovies not the dish). That with peanuts, salt and sugar, coconut milk rice and good sambal.... excellent breakfast!

←

←

The Koreans do a spicy version as well with red pepper flakes or fresh chilis. We can eat just this with rice of course.

Peanuts and coconut milk? Recipe please?

←

[His Nibs]

Quick Nasi Lemak recipe:

Substitute coconut milk for water when making rice (in whatever proportion you use)

Add 2 to 3 pandan (screwpine) leaves (recommend that you knot it)

Cook as per normal

edit: As you can imagine, this rice dish is pretty up there in terms of cholesterol

Edited March 23, 2005 by His Nibs (log)